Pontiac Times

U.S. Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-10th District), was highly motivated to win his seat in Congress. He spent more than $6 million dollars of his own money and put in several years of effort in two hard-fought campaigns. After a failed first attempt in the 2014 election, Mitchell ran again in the 2016 election, winning Michigan’s 10th District. However, by the summer 2019, just two-and-a-half years later, Mitchell said he’s had enough. In July, Mitchell announced that he did not want to run for a third term. 

Mitchell, 63, the former owner of St. Clair-based Ross Medical Education Centers, is one of the wealthiest members of the House. He has a personal fortune of $37 million. His seat is in a safe Republican district.

His decision to leave Congress surprised a lot of people. The "wear and tear" of the job is one explanation that he gives for his decision to leave Congress.

U.S. Rep. Paul Mitchell | Mitchell's website

"Maybe there was a bit of naïvete," Mitchell said in an interview with Crain's Detroit Business in July. "You never know exactly what it's going to be (like) until they toss your backside into it and you actually live it."

Traveling back and forth to Washington, and then, on weekends, making the rounds of his six-county district kept him away from his home and family. Michigan's 10th District includes Huron, Sanilac, Tuscola, Lapeer, St. Clair and Macomb counties. Mitchell and his wife, Sherry, have a 9-year-old son they adopted from Russia. 

A proud conservative Republican, Mitchell has not said that he is leaving Congress because he is disillusioned with President Donald Trump. He explained his early exit to Crain’s this way: the political culture of Washington was, as he put it, "too consuming.” 

There are hints on Mitchell's website that the atmosphere in Trump-era Washington has something to do with Mitchell's decision to step down. When the president took to Twitter in July to tell four Democratic Congresswomen of color, three of whom were born in the USA, to go back to their home countries, Mitchell took to Twitter to object:

"@RealDonaldTrump, we must be better than comments like these. I share the political frustrations with some members of the other party, but these comments are beneath our leaders," he tweeted.

Mitchell is a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. In that capacity, he worked aggressively to convince the Army Corps of Engineers and the Trump administration of the importance of securing funding for upgrading the Soo Locks. 

“Any failure at the locks would have a devastating ripple effect on our nation’s economy and national security,” Mitchell said in a press release.  

Mitchell was pleased to see that the president had included funding for the upgrading of the Soo Locks in the latest budget. At the same time, Mitchell expressed his displeasure that the Trump budget proposal cut funding for another initiative that is important to Mitchell and his district: The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

“I am disappointed that once again the president’s proposal calls for greatly reduced funding to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative," Michell said in a release. "Our Great Lakes are a national treasure, and the GLRI supports critical projects that improve water quality, combat invasive species, protect the Great Lakes ecosystem, and more.” 

When the Mueller Report was released in April, Mitchell praised Mueller’s effort and his integrity, saying that the Mueller Report confirmed what Mitchell had been saying all along: that the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia. Mitchell did say that the report raised questions about national security. He concluded his remarks on the release of the Mueller report this way: 

“... I still have concerns about, and believe we should have a thorough investigation of, the way this investigation began – surveillance of American citizens and a political campaign predicated on political opposition research. No one in our nation should have their constitutional rights violated on political grounds,” Mitchell said in a press release. 

So what is Mitchell going to do now? He told Crain's Detroit Business he does not see himself taking on another business venture.